oh lawd, i promised myself i wouldnt do this, but desperate times call for desperate blogs.
first, some factual statements.
1. i think about some aspect of international development every day.
2. i ponder the meaning of life every day.
3. i have moral, ethical and philosophical debates with myself every day. sometimes about important things involving human rights and social justice, sometimes about if i should use left over dark chocolate from the vegan cookies as a paint medium, or just eat it (the latter won out).
4. i try to keep up with global happenings, as it is something that interests me and i feel it is important.
as i have never been anyone other than myself, im not entirely sure if other people think about these things on a daily basis. my first impulse would be no.
i am technically a trained anthropologist, so i should know how to observe social realities created by human beings.. yet im not very comfortable judging people on this matter.
i do know for a fackt, however, that there are many people i am friends/acquaintances with who are not very interested in these things, because they ask me questions like:
"What is international development?"
well ill tell you what it is. its a bunch of white people that sit around, argue nonstop with each other, and generally feel more enlightened than everyone else in the entire world.
class dismissed.
on to the matter at hand, ive known about invisible children since i was a teenager. ive been to a lot of their events in the states. i know a ton of people who have been involved with their movement. i happened to drop by their office in gulu when i was in the area and had a lovely chat with some people there. locals we talked to seemed to appreciate them working there. mind you, gulu is flooded with international organizations that showed up just about the time the conflict moved out. so IC is just kind of another organization hangin around northern Uganda hoping to empower the post-conflict society and bring some stability.
or are they?
see, in the world of international development, IC has accomplished something the arguingwhitepeople could never dream of doing. they have literally captured the world with a current, global issue (and by world i mean of course the entire western community, as well as the wannabe-western communities that are not currently engaged in some horrid conflict of their own).
yes, i was skeptical of this world-capturing as well. but as i sat through a 30 min discussion on KONY2012 in my development methods course today, i realized that it is very true.
last semester i actually wrote an essay on IC and how they use social media to communicate their message to western youth. when i explained my essay topic to my professor im pretty sure he didnt know who IC was. and today they were the case study of an entire class period.
on the other hand, i know people, dear sweet people, who couldnt point out uganda or drc on a map, yet they could tell you all about IC’s mission.
its literally everywhere. i could go on.
how very interesting indeed.
i tried to dislike IC. i really did. they are just so damn positive. (development studies really eats your soul btw). (if you didnt know). so yes we can critique their development policy and presentation and understanding. we can point out flaws in their media and information. we can sit around and argue with each other and think were more enlightened than everyone else. but im telling you, if i was in their position right now i would take the same approach. almost
because i want my friends and family who know nothing about africa to be aware of current human rights issues. i want people to get involved in a global discourse. not everyone can/will/cares to devote their life to development studies, but they should still have access to information. and that information needs to be easily understood and simplified. is this right? prob not. is it the only way information can be understood on a global level?
a resounding YES.
so. the arguingwhitepeoplewhothinktheyknoweverything are in an uproar about KONY2012 and my friends that have never traveled out of the US have become overnight social activists.
either way, people are talking about it. because..oh wait, thats actually the point.
IC empowers people.
people will actually do things if they feel compelled.
because people want to be part of something bigger than themselves.
they will mobilize if they feel they need to be heard and seen.
this is why grassroots bottom-up movements are so important. you build a collective that is personally invested and passionate about the situation.
if this is a fad, or a trend, or a distraction, is it not something worthwhile? should lay people (ie. people that do not study development/geography/politics/anthropology/etc/etc/etc/etc) be forever destined to think only about things like the jersey shore and justin beiber and groupon? do they have an equal say in global matters? or should they be excluded?
i think IC answers that question for them. they make this information accessible.
does global information come at the expense of distortion, misinterpretation and manipulation? yep. so should all the experts hoard this info for themselves?
[if i could just go out on a limb here and say, i think academia/researchers/experts are so afraid of being criticized, it seems they only speak out on issues (i mean in a broad, widely publicized context) when it directly threatens their howevermanyyears of research. they only speak out when they can slam someone for being 'wrong' or maybe 'not as educated' and throw a bunch of sources in their face. it seems to me that they are more eager to criticize everyone else than to take the initiative to bring social justice issues to light and suggest methods of positive change. because they are so cautious of being critiqued. is this something we should be ok with?]
ive always thought it was strange that all the wonderful (and not so wonderful) things i learn in social science are never written in a way that is accessible for the broader public. while i think this has something to do with academic elitism, social stratigraphy and the idea of western knowledge (which is another story entirely) (a rather really long story), i can only hope that academics and development experts actually try to engage with this audience. because right now, IC and organizations like it are trying to fill this gap between knowledge and accessibility.
and people are responding to it! and theres money! oh my!
i have supported IC for years and i still do.
but i wish a western organization didnt have to be the face of central africa to the world (the world as we have previously defined it).
i wish everyone had an equal voice.
i wish humanitarian aid didnt have to exist.
i wish everyone was equally knowledgeable about social issues.
i wish things could be different,
but theyre not.
so. to recap-
things are really complicated.
